Chapter 510: The Chosen One

New Era Calendar year 2532, early summer, Jin Gang Fort.

In the spacious, bright mechanical alchemy chamber, Lei En stood before a sturdy metal frame, concentrating, his right hand pressing the blue furnace fixed to the rack. This furnace was only as large as a grinding stone, shaped like a big backpack, its surface covered with thousands of Titan runes.

Each rune was smaller than a sesame seed, connected by lines as fine as hair, reaching deep into the furnace's interior.

If the furnace were opened, one would find its internal structure like a massive maze shrunk countless times and packed into a narrow space. Every component, every pipe, every rune was arranged strictly according to design, with no flaw, as if a perfect work of art, its craftsmanship reaching the pinnacle, beyond ordinary imagination.

At this moment, the furnace was operating.

Blue light flickered, electricity hissed, emitting a faint roar and vibration; the high-purity source crystal rod inserted into the furnace core was excited by the rune array, undergoing a violent reaction that released enormous energy.

This raging energy was tamed by the rune-controlled transmission, flowing out through a crystal tube, driving a massive machine tool occupying more than ten square meters beside it.

The machine tool's original power source was a large rune steam engine, as big as a car, capable of powering a ship; after Lei En removed it, it served as a power test piece for the furnace.

Buzz—buzz—buzz……

The heavy machine tool suddenly started, then ran wildly as if on stimulants, speed increasing, vibration amplitude growing, the six thick bolts fixed to the ground loosened, and in an instant it exceeded its rotational speed limit.

The entire mechanical alchemy chamber was filled with noise, the floor constantly shaking, and objects on surrounding tables jittered.

Lei En did not stop, continuing to control the furnace's energy output.

The specially reinforced machine tool ultimately did not fall apart, withstanding the energy infusion, and after a few minutes gradually adapted to this overclocked operation.

The Titan Furnace's energy also remained at a stable level.

Lei En's expression stayed unchanged; he suddenly released the rune crystal pressed on the furnace with his right hand and stepped back a few steps to observe its reaction.

His hand had been released only a few seconds when the furnace began to wobble.

Blue electricity surged everywhere, the Titan runes became extremely unstable, flashing bright then dim, even switching several times within a second; scorching hot gases leaked from inside, and crackling sounds filled the surrounding air as bolts of lightning danced.

Half a minute later, the Titan Furnace had turned into a dazzling blue light, and the terrifying heat melted the metal frame beneath.

Lei En shook his head, a look of disappointment on his face.

He calmly opened a portal, grabbed the Titan Furnace from a distance and tossed it in, then closed the portal, the motion seamless as if he had practiced it dozens or hundreds of times.

He then passed through a random door to the outside of Jin Gang Fort, hovered mid‑air, and gazed at a desolate valley a few miles away.

Boom!

A blinding flash exploded in his view, like a fireball of more than seven rings; ten seconds later, the blast's shockwave and sound arrived almost simultaneously, waking over two hundred fire dragons sleeping in a cliffside cave, they shrieked, then quickly fell silent.

On Jin Gang Fort's training ground, squads of spear‑wing knights were training with Extreme Warriors; they looked up at the explosion, saw Lei En in the sky, and each wore a look of sudden realization, thinking the boss was doing another magic experiment again.

Everyone had long become accustomed to explosions every now and then.

Lei En opened the random door back to the mechanical alchemy chamber, looked at the machine tool still slowing down its rotation and the metal frame half melted, and sighed helplessly.

"Really damn hard!"

He sat down, his face full of frustration and conflict.

Since acquiring the Titan rune knowledge and the Thunder‑forged Colossus, he had mastered furnace technology in half a year, then in three months replicated the first Titan Furnace, slightly larger than the one inside the Colossus. Since then, he continuously researched and experimented, leveraging his advantage in metal activation and his past mechanical expertise, gradually shrinking the furnace's size.

After countless days and nights of research and investment, after more than a dozen improvements, the furnace was finally reduced to the size of a backpack, portable by a single person.

This is the current limit he can achieve.

The smaller the furnace, the lower the output energy. If it got any smaller, it wouldn't achieve the desired effect; whether as a power source or weapon energy, its power would be severely reduced. The current size is just right, balancing energy level and volume.

Lei En gave this micro‑Titan Furnace a name: the "Titan Engine."

However, the Titan Engine has a serious problem: its control over the rune array and energy requires extreme precision, down to the millisecond, and any tiny error quickly accumulates into a larger fault, eventually causing a runaway explosion.

To solve the control system issue, Lei En spent an unknown amount of effort.

He studied the Titan rune knowledge countless times, mastering all rune arrays related to furnaces, and also tried to incorporate rune formations from other systems, but to no avail.

After consulting his teacher many times, Lei En realized this might not be a problem the rune array could solve.

Runes are the foundation of transcendent power; they can control all energy and exist within a being's soul. Transcendents rely on runes to wield various energies and abilities, but any living being cannot be as precise and stable as a machine; even the fastest reaction has a limit.

This is an innate limitation of being a biological creature; even a Holy Soul Wizard cannot achieve millisecond‑level reactions.

Humans are not cold, rigid machines; errors will always occur.

Thus Lei En thought of the control chip from his past life; he cannot forge a chip, but he has one in his mind.

After many attempts, leveraging the multi‑core chip function of his MutatedPhone, Lei En finally managed to control the Titan Engine, keeping it running stably.

But once he lets go, the Titan Engine quickly goes out of control.

The best case only lasted twenty seconds, with no sign of a solution.

Lei En sat there, fiddling with a square metal piece, only slightly larger than a gold coin, glittering, its surface etched with tens of thousands of fine patterns; if a 21st‑century Earth person were here, they'd instantly mistake it for a chip.

In reality, it was just a scrap piece of iron, useless.

Putting aside that silicon isn't metal, even if it were, Lei En's activated metal cannot manually forge a chip, not even at the micrometer scale, let alone nanometer.

He tried once and gave up, not intending to make things harder for himself.

This is absolutely harder than the Investiture of the Gods!

Lei En propped his chin with his hand, fell into thought. Unable to create a chip, he could only start from an existing one; he looked at the multi‑core chip icon on his phone interface, this chip existed only in his mind—what method could turn it into a physical object?

But there was no precedent.

Since the phone mutated, all its functions now exist only within the soul, intangible, visible only to himself.

Lei En wondered whether opening his own head would reveal a phone.

He wasn't sure.

"No, that's too dangerous." Lei En shook his head, discarding the absurd idea, and even if he obtained a phone chip, it would only control one Titan Engine, while he had lost various powerful abilities, making it not worth the cost.

"We should start from the Element side."

His thoughts branched out; from past Soul Transformations and ascension experiences, multi‑core chips are actually a kind of Element and can be replicated. Reslin's brain had replicated a MutatedPhone, also possessing multi‑core chip functionality.

What method could strengthen the multi‑core chip, extending its capabilities outward?

Just like the relationship between himself and Reslin, the chip is anchored to something as an external avatar, enabling remote control.

Lei En felt a surge of spirit at this point; this line of thought seemed feasible!

He immediately opened the "Book of a Thousand Souls" on his phone, searched for similar Elements, but found no matching results. The "Book of a Thousand Souls" is the most common Element knowledge compendium; any Element not recorded there must be extremely rare or obscure.

Lei En did not lose heart; the phone library still contained hundreds of books on Elements.

More books also mentioned Elements, but not in detail and lacking corresponding research. The species of Ai Lun E Si's world can nurture how many Elements, even the gods cannot say; some scholars believe the known Elements are far fewer than the unknown, and a mortal's whole life could never fully study them.

He skimmed through several hundred books in half a day, yet found no suitable Element.

Night fell.

Lei En, while searching, teleported back to Ge La Mo Gen; after dinner he kept at it for over an hour, when the wind‑elf butler hurriedly knocked and entered, beaming, shouting, "My lord, Her Majesty the Queen has sent word: a prince is about to be born!"

"I'll go right now." Lei En was startled, then quickly stood up.

Ai Mi Li Si has been pregnant for three years, and the due date is within these days. Since half a month ago, he has been teleporting to Hong Long Bao each night, intending to go later, but now the birth is imminent.

Lei En teleported to Hong Long Bao and immediately sensed a tense atmosphere in the castle.

Tonight in Jin Si Lan a torrential rain pours, the wind howls outside, lightning streaks across the sky illuminating the castle—weather not common in the newly thawed Kangjiatuo, highly abnormal, as if foretelling an unusual event.

The stationed guards' faces flicker; amid the sounds of all things one hears maids and servants' private chatter—everyone has learned the news: the Queen is about to give birth to the kingdom's heir.

"Duke!"

Seeing Lei En's figure, the guard beside the teleportation array quickly saluted and greeted. Four Extreme Warriors and a squad of Winged‑Spear Knights also shouted in unison, "Boss!"

Lei En outwardly kept calm, nodded in response, then opened the random door and stepped inside.

He appeared outside Ai Mi Li Si's bedroom; the door was shut tight, and Wa Luo Gen, A Si Tan and Ding La Ji were anxiously waiting, pacing back and forth, restless.

"Marquis Li Si, how is the situation?" Lei En asked.

"Duke…," Wa Luo Gen began to salute but was cut off by Lei En's wave; he quickly replied, "Your Majesty felt sudden pain a few minutes ago, saying she is about to give birth. The two priests you summoned are inside; Mi Na Sang leads a unit of female Scale‑Blood Guard protecting Her Majesty, so there should be no problem."

Lei En nodded, feeling a bit reassured. Those two senior priests are both women, from the Empire's Earth Temple, and have abundant birthing experience.

Nevertheless, his heartbeat kept accelerating.

Ai Mi Li Si's bedroom was fitted with a sound‑dampening formation, so no sounds could be heard from inside; the usually composed Lei En unexpectedly felt a few pangs of anxiety and tension.

Fortunately, this feeling passed in less than two minutes.

A middle‑aged female priest opened the bedroom door and, upon seeing Lei En, saluted, "Congratulations, Duke, the prince has been safely born, very healthy, and Your Majesty is unharmed."

"That fast!"

Lei En was surprised; it hadn't even been ten minutes, and she was already done!

He didn't wait for the priest's reply and rushed in; at a glance he saw Ai Mi Li Si lying on a luxurious big bed, cheeks flushed, cradling a tiny infant. Another female priest at the bedside was casting a healing spell; white light fell, Ai Mi Li Si's complexion recovered quickly, looking nothing like a postpartum mother.

"Lei En!"

Ai Mi Li Si sat up directly, her dignified, noble face showing delight, and said energetically, "You've come."

The Soul Eye saw that she was already a fifteen‑level Dragon‑born Apostle, showing no sign of weakness.

Lei En's heart eased; a legendary transcendent is not an ordinary person—childbirth is efficient, his own regeneration allows immediate action, and with senior priest healing he felt hardly any pain, as if he had simply picked up a child after a meal.

Yet he still went to the bedside and softly said, "You've worked hard."

Three years of pregnancy, governing a nation with a swollen belly—that is truly hard work!

Ai Mi Li Si smiled sweetly, looked down at the child in her arms, and handed it to Lei En, "You hold him."

Lei En clumsily caught the light, floating newborn, handling it gingerly, fearing to bruise him with too much force. The just‑born child was wrinkled and not pretty, but already bore facial features resembling his own; he would surely grow into a handsome man.

"This is my son, my flesh‑and‑bone son!"

Lei En's emotions were complex, but joy dominated; after five years since crossing into this world, he finally had a true blood relative.

Suddenly, the just‑asleep little face twitched, brows furrowed, as if having a nightmare.

Lei En's heart sank.

The Soul Eye saw that within his son's soul the Blood Soul Curse was stirring, extending evil tendrils to infect the soul. This is a calamity every human newborn must face; attacked when the soul is weakest, almost no parents can help.

But Lei En is not an ordinary father.

"You all step out." He looked at the two senior priests and the squad of female Scale‑Blood Guard standing in the bedroom.

After the main door closed, only the three of them remained in the bedroom; Lei En gently placed the son in the cradle by the bedside.

He gazed at his sleeping son, eyes full of affection and tenderness.

Under Ai Mi Li Si's puzzled look, Lei En's expression hardened; then, pointing at the infant in the cradle, a massive, indescribable magical surge radiated from him as he shouted, "Undo the Blood Soul Curse on the male infant before me!"

Volume Five "Empire's Upheaval" sets sail!

(End of chapter)